I855-] INSECTA MADERENSIA. 405 



that are apterous ; and I think I have guessed the reason, 

 viz., that powers of flight would be injurious to insects inha- 

 biting a confined locality, and expose them to be blown to the 

 sea : to test this, I find that the insects inhabiting the Dezerte 

 Grande, a quite small islet, would be still more exposed to 

 this danger, and here the proportion of apterous insects is 

 even considerably greater than on Madeira Proper. Wollas- 

 ton speaks of Madeira and the other Archipelagoes as being 

 " sure and certain witnesses of Forbes* old continent," and of 

 course the Entomological world implicitly follows this view. 

 But to my eyes it would be difficult to imagine facts more 

 opposed to such a view. It is really disgusting and humi- 

 liating to see directly opposite conclusions drawn from the 

 same facts. 



I have had some correspondence with Wollaston on this 

 and other subjects, and I find that he coolly assumes, (i) that 

 formerly insects possessed greater migratory powers than now, 



(2) that the old land was specially rich in centres of creation, 



(3) that the uniting land was destroyed before the special 

 creations had time to diffuse, and (4) that the land was broken 

 down before certain families and genera had time to reach 

 from Europe or Africa the points of land in question. Are 

 not these a jolly lot of assumptions ? and yet I shall see for 

 the next dozen or score of years Wollaston quoted as proving 

 the former existence of poor Forbes' Atlantis. 



the south, he devoted himself to a study of the Coleoptera of Madeira, the 

 Cape de Verdes, and St. Helena, whence he deduced evidence in support 

 of the belief in the submerged continent of ' Atlantis.' In an obituary 

 notice by Mr. Rye (' Nature,' 1878) he is described as v/orking persistently 

 " upon a broad conception of the science to which he was devoted," while 

 being at the same time " accurate, elaborate, and precise ad punctum, and 

 naturally of a minutely critical habit." His first scientific paper was 

 written when he was an undergraduate at Jesus College, Cambridge. While 

 at the University, he was an Associate and afterwards a Member of the 

 Ray Club : this is a small society which still meets once a week, and where 

 the undergraduate members, or Associates, receive much kindly encourage- 

 ment from their elders. 



